• China on Monday officially shut down the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) request for a meeting between each country’s defense ministers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin intended to speak in-person with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Security Dialogue from May 31 to June 4, as he had done in 2022, when such meetings usually materialize without significant planning ahead.
• However, Beijing issued a last-minute rebuff to the Pentagon in an unusually straightforward rejection as relations between the two defense ministries further sour, according to the WSJ.

Tagged: China